This invention relates to amusement devices for children and, more particularly, to a toy of novel structure which admits of the presentation, by selective manipulation by the user, of a three-dimensional representation of a human figure in such a manner as to admit of one of the parts of the toy being positioned relative to the other part so as to change the general character of the representation.
Toys of a pictorial nature and by which parts of a human figure, animal, flowers, landscapes, or other pictorial representations may be varied to secure a large number of pictorial effects have long been known and available in a variety of configurations. For example, in the case of the representation of a human figure, the clothing, parts of the body, and other elements associated therewith may be varied at will so that the aspect of many different figures will be had in an amusing manner. Representative of this type of toy is the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,931,657 which has a cylindrical body provided with a window opening in its side wall and enclosing a plurality of separately rotatable cylindrical sections arranged coaxially and for selective exposure of their outer faces within the window. As a result, the rotative movement of these cylindrical sections will position various pictorial elements in the window and in such assembled relationship that a unitary picture or figure will be the result. By selective rotation of the several cylindrical sections, a large number of different figures may be produced. Although this type of toy permits the composition by the user of a large number of different figures, some of which are amusing by virtue of the unnaturalness of the composite picture, the toy does not, because most of the pictorial elements on all of the cylindrical sections are hidden from view, permit the child to visualize in advance the representation he would like to create; rather, each of the cylindrical sections must be separately rotated until the pictorial elements assembled in the viewing window produce a composite picture, which may or may not achieve the representation that the child had in mind.
A primary object of this invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive toy of this general nature which is so simple to operate that it can be used by a small child, yet sufficiently sophisticated that an older child, say, up to six years of age, will continue to use it with interest. More particularly, the toy according to the invention permits the child to visualize in advance the one of several possible pictorial effects he wishes to represent and then by proper manipulation of the parts of the toy, produce that effect.
Another object of the invention is to provide a toy of this type which can be made strong enough to withstand rough handling and which meets the strict standards of safety and cleanliness to which toys are subject.